The columnist that ignored everything

By Published On: November 9, 2006

Pal prisoner released.jpg
Soad El Joeb’e (center), one of six female Palestinian prisoners released by Israel Feb. 11, 1997, is kissed by her parents in East Jerusalem/Photo by Awad Awad/AFP

In his Op-Ed Tuesday in Ha’aretz, entitled “The murder that stopped everything,” Nehemia Shtrasler suggests that Yasir Arafat fought against terror in the interest of peace. In contrast, former Prime Minister Netanyahu aimed to

smash the Oslo agreement; and he did so throughly. In September 1996, he opened the tunnel in Jerusalem (at Ehud Olmert’s advice), and therefore, the two of them set Jerusalem and the territories on fire. Netanyahu invented the cliche “if they give, they’ll get” to create a complete standstill. He rejected the incremental process, but instead intensified building in the settlements, Har Homa and East Jerusalem.

He did not permit safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank, and did not release Palestinian prisoners. Thus the Oslo agreement was smashed.

First, the factual error: During his tenure from May 1996 to July 1999, Netanyahu released at least 281 Palestinian prisoners. On Feb. 11, 1997, he released 30 Palestinian women (New York Times, “West Bank Town Hails Freed Prisoners,” Feb. 13, 1997). On Oct. 1, 1997, Netanyahu released Hamas leader Sheik Amhed Yasin to Jordan (New York Times, “Israel Frees Ailing Hamas Founder to Jordan at Hussein’s Request, Oct. 1, 1997). Finally, in November, 1998, as part of the Wye River Accords, Netanyahu released 250 Palestinian prisoners, including 150 common criminals and other offenders (New York Times, “Israel’s Release of Criminals Elicits Dismay in Palestinians,” Nov. 30, 1998).

Don’t expect a correction from Ha’aretz, though. (Nevertheless, send requests for a correction to publisher Amos Schocken at [email protected].)

Was opening an airport in Gaza and withdrawing from Hebron part of Netanyahu’s plan to “smash the Oslo agreement?”

We expose the anti-Israel lies so you don't have to. But we can't do it without your help. Join the fight -- Donate now
CAMERA logo
Tell the World – Share Now!

More from SNAPSHOTS

  • In English, Haaretz Whitewashes Temple Mount Killings

    October 6, 2019

    Master Sgt. Kamil Shnaan, left, and Master Sgt. Haiel Sitawe, right, the police officers killed in the terror attack next to the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on July 14, 2017. (Israel Police) In an [...]

  • Media Confounds, Calling Israel’s Voting Arab Citizens ‘Palestinian’

    September 24, 2019

    Arab woman voting in Jaffa, 2013 (Photo by Noam Moskovich/The Israel Project (Flickr) The impressive turnout on the part of Arab citizens of Israel in last week's elections -- making the Joint List of Arab [...]

  • Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim

    September 10, 2019

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]

  • A Skewed NY Times Story on BDS, Then a Skewed Letters Section

    August 7, 2019

    After the New York Times published a skewed story about the anti-Israel BDS campaign, we detailed how the newspaper's reporters "put their fingers on the scales in support of BDS." One of the many examples [...]

  • CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’

    July 24, 2019

    Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]

  • NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence

    July 9, 2019

    The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]

  • Not a Scoop: 448 Days Later, NY Times Reports Slur by Palestinian Leader

    June 10, 2019

    In January 2016, on the day Israel buried a pregnant woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel publicly criticized what he viewed as a double standard in Israelis law [...]

  • CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi

    June 9, 2019

    Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]

  • After Broadcasting Holocaust Denial, AJ+ Feigns Innocence

    May 31, 2019

    After Al Jazeera created and posted a video questioning "the truth of the Holocaust," officials at the Qatari media giant took a page from the New York Times' book, blaming employees who were working "without [...]

  • In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism

    May 29, 2019

    Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]